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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The Heisman Strong Arm

We have been married two and a half months and have enjoyed each second immensely! I thought it was about time I tried to make an honest effort to get in touch with my blogging self and post my version of how I met my husband got to this point. And never fear, my husband will make an appearance as a guest blogger and post his side of the story too! I had planned on posting both of these before the wedding but I figured better late than never since lots of you have asked for our story...

I remember meeting Kelly for the very first time - I had heard lots about my husband in advance so I was expecting him to be very nice and have really pretty eyes. Everything I had heard about him was confirmed in the first moment we met - he was really nice and his eyes were amazing. The morning we met was at a workshop for my students at school; Kelly was presenting information on showing sheep! I thought about the possibility of dating Kelly for a millisecond but quickly shoved that thought aside as I began taking pictures of the workshop that morning.

Later that next week Kelly texted me and asked if I wanted to grab coffee or go to dinner sometime. I said yes without hesitating thinking "what do I have to lose?" We went to a La Placita, a local Mexican restaurant, where we continued to go about once a month for dinner for the next seven months. Kelly says that I gave himthe Heisman strong arm, that I just kept pushing him away. But seven months after we met I finally agreed to truly date Kelly and not just have dinner once a month. All during this proces of slowly getting to know him, his character, sense of humor and commitment to family and faith became very apparent. I was working through my own "issues" though - I had become very content being single and had never really been intent on marrying someone. I think my sub-conscious knew what a good catch Kelly truly was so I was struggling with the fact that this relationship had good long term potential.

That first week in October 2010 we grabbed coffee on a Friday evening and then Kelly had to work a 48-hour shift. He was letting the Ag department borrow his sheep again for yet another workshop. That evening while having coffee Kell told me several times to make sure that I checked out the sheep the next day. I thought he was crazy for telling me this because I was of course going to do that without being told! That next day brought a huge surprise - Kelly had shorn his first note to me in the wool of his eight sheep that we had borrowed. The message read "Katy's the best and prettiest 2!" I was shocked - and delighted.

The month of October went by quickly and I became very intrigued and very "into" Kelly - I couldn't get enough time with him. After what I consider our first real date (how can that be...eight months into things?) we sat in my driveway talking for several hours. I got out of the truck and the little voice in my head told me that I could marry him. I wrote him a note that evening telling him this very thing.

After working through some issues our relationship progressed rapidly althought I kep telling everyone that we were just talking things slowly. I don't know when we started talking marriage but by the time January rolled around we were talking about when Kelly would ask my dad for my hand in marriage. The three day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend came and went and Kelly missed his chance to ask my dad when we visited my family that weekend. He ended up driving up a week later to ask my dad for my hand in marriage and then we were engaged a few weeks later.

It was the night of the FFA Pie Auction and Potluck - after a rvery romantic dinner with 60 of my closest FFA members and their families, we headed home to enjoy a delightful apple pie and watch a movie. I was so set on watching this movie that it cracks me up that Kelly humored me all while having that ring in his pocket. I was exhausted after the movie but Kelly seemed like he wanted to talk so I listened. He was being very thoughtful and serious and I just had no clue why this was necessary at 11:30pm at night. Kelly seemed distracted so I looked up and he was texting - or so I thought. After asking him what he was doing he told me that he sent me a picture. I opened the text up on my phone and there was a picture with another shorn message - "Katy will you marry me?" I couldn't have been happier or more surprised in that moment because I did not expect the question then. I obviously said yes and two days later I gave Kelly the letter I wrote to him back in October after our first "real date."